Really fast auto focus, build quality for the given price. Good range on FF.

Cons:

Some distortion at 28mm

After some steps over lower quality consumer lenses I ended up with this one. The build quality is resonable. If you have a short budget go for the lens. One of best values for little money from Canon.

May 2, 2007

miamivideoOfflineImage Upload: Off

Registered: May 31, 2006Location: United StatesPosts: 16

Review Date: Apr 19, 2007

Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $229.95
| Rating: 8

Pros:

Got it yesterday and all I got was Razor sharp pictures at both ends, even at 105mm the pictures looked stunning. I was taking the pictures indoor at 1/120 F8 with flash 420ex

Cons:

None found so far

Apr 19, 2007

msteve1OfflineImage Upload: Off

Registered: Apr 14, 2007Location: United StatesPosts: 73

Review Date: Apr 15, 2007

Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $229.00
| Rating: 8

Pros:

Good build, ring USM, FTM, flexible zoom range, affordable

Cons:

f/3.5 only at widest aperture; lens hood not included

The 28-105 is very well built for a lens in this price range. The zoom functions smoothly, it has a distance scale, and it has ring USM and FTM. These last two are usually only found on more expensive lenses.

Pictures are not always razor sharp compared to my primes, but they are very good and much better than any budget lens on the market. Color is great and contrast is good. I shoot in RAW and only apply minor processing on most images.

This is the first lens I bought for my camera. I'm in the process of upgrading some of the lesser quality lenses I started with, but the 28-105 will stay in my bag. This is the one I take most often when I only carry one lens.

I have samples from this lens <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/msteve1/tags/canonef28105mmf3545iiusm/">here</a>.

Strong, evident vignetting (on FF) and soft wide open all over it's range. For decent quality needs to be stopped down to F/6.3 and smaller. There are better alternatives at this price range.

I owned this lens for three years before swapping it for a Tamron 28-75 f/2.8. I used to praise this lens...

until I got to photograph with the Tamron - the difference (especially in the image quality department) was like night and day. Somebody had switched the lights on! It had opened a whole new world of creative opportunities for my photography.

The Tamron offers superior sharpness, colour rendition, nicer bokeh, smaller amount of vignetting and it allowed me to take pictures at f/2.8, which meant better low light capabilities and small depth of field. It is almost in the same price/weight league - the only area in which the Tamron is worse than this Canon is the noisy AF. The Canon seems better built at first glance, but it started to wobble after 1 year of use (the Tamron wobbles too, but less so than the Canon after years of intensive use and world travel).

The same applies to Tamron's 17-50 F/2.8 for aps-c digitals. It provides WAY superior IQ compared to the Canon 28-105 and it has a more appropiate range for small sensors (300/350/400D, 20/30D).

I have also tried the Canon 24-85 and my conclusion is that it is slightly sharper than the 28-105.

Canon's 28-135 IS is sharper than both the Canon 28-105 and the Canon 24-85, but it is still behind the Tamrons.

The bottom line is:

Both Tamrons mentioned above and Canon's own 24-85 are superior alternatives in the same price range. The tamron's offer L glass image quality of you obtain a good copy for a marginally higher price.

I do not recommend this lens - there are better alternatives out there.

Apr 12, 2007

HelmetfireOfflineImage Upload: Off

Registered: Oct 7, 2005Location: United KingdomPosts: 0

Review Date: Apr 6, 2007

Recommend? no |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 3

Pros:

Hard to say considering the major negative point (with my example anyway).

Cons:

Very soft at 28mm.

As I said, very soft at 28mm, even at f8. 105mm a lot better, but still needs some PP work. As most, if not all, who might buy this lens will want to use the 28mm end, I can't help feeling there are much better choices out there.

Apr 6, 2007

ImperialistOfflineImage Upload: Off

Registered: May 14, 2006Location: United StatesPosts: 0

Review Date: Mar 30, 2007

Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $233.79
| Rating: 9

Pros:

Price, all around quality

Cons:

None for price

Nice lens, would highly recommend for anyone thinking about buying a lens in this focal range. I've had it for about a year now and it's served me well.

This has been my general purpose lens. However, I recently purchased an EF 85mm f/1.8 USM and an EF 70-200mm f/4L USM.
The 85mm will be my primary for portaits - specifically those inside shots. The 70-200 was my choice to take care of the issues I had with this lens.

This lens will still remain a primary for me on my general purpose work. Since I focus mainly on people and portraits, I wanted to find something that would assist me a bit more. It's a great choice for the price.

Mar 10, 2007

Krystof MederOfflineImage Upload: Off

Registered: Feb 25, 2007Location: AustraliaPosts: 0

Review Date: Mar 7, 2007

Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $150.00
| Rating: 7

Pros:

Light enough to carry all day, sharp, IS, good zoom range.

Cons:

Image quality suffers at long end, build could be better

This was my first on my Canon 30D and it worked well enough at the start. However when I started getting into my favourite photography (dawn and dusk HDR) I found that image quality suffered from quite a deal of noise at the longer end (80mm-105mm).

Therfore I'll be setting this lens aside and keeping it more for general use travel photography as opposed to my more serious photographic pursuits. I've actually decide to purchase the 50mm 1.8 MII as the replacement and my standard lens and will use the 70-200mm L F4 to cover the longer focal length which this lens did till now.

However all in all, if you want general purpose lens this one really does quite a decent job and doesn't cost a fortune.

Mar 7, 2007

James pf ChowOfflineImage Upload: Off

Registered: Jan 19, 2007Location: MalaysiaPosts: 1

Review Date: Mar 1, 2007

Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $168.00
| Rating: 9

Pros:

Sharpness and contrast. Light & flexible for walkaround, and solidly built for the price. Quite and fast ring USM focusing system. .

Cons:

No complaint at this price point.

Good range, 28mm to 105mm, makes it a very good walkaround lens and for street photography. Optically, this is probably the best lens you can get at this price point with the good zoom range capability.

With a matching hood, EW63II, the contrast is excellent in a lot of outdoor shootings. Color rendering is smooth and natural. This lens, depite its low price, comes with a amazingly fast & silent ring USM motor. It's solidly built yet light and convenient with it's size.

Highly recommended for general purpose and walkaround. It is a keeper and always stays in my camera bag.

I use this lens a lot and rate it highly. Good range for general use and this tends to be my standard lens when I am not using long telephotos for wildlife. 28mm at the short end is a bit tight on a digital with 1.6 crop - but the specification is there in black and white before you buy. Sharpness, colour, focussing accuracy are more than acceptable for a lens of this price.

Feb 11, 2007

kevmarOfflineImage Upload: Off

Registered: Sep 25, 2005Location: United KingdomPosts: 98

Review Date: Dec 10, 2006

Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10

Pros:

Midweight, cheap, excellent build quality

Cons:

No hood supplied as standard. Zoom is liable to creep - but could be due to the usage my lens has had!

This lens is my workhorse lens.

As much as I would like to afford an L series, it isn't practical, nor within my budget.

This lens is a medium weight lens - its heavy enough to be noticed, light enough to be used all day.

Colour rendition is good, and its USM motor is pretty much bang on, and nice and quiet, making it good for all situations.

It is a bit long when used on a 20D/300D - Eqv. 45mm in 35mm - but for most of my work this is no issue (it mainly involves taking a step back or two).

I've used this in street and studio situations and found it to be a very valuable addition to the arsenal of lenses i carry - so much so, it has

If it had to suggests improvements, a little red ring would be nice, with better quality elements.. but this is NOT an L lens - this is a "consumer" lens.. that purely and simply rocks.

The ideal upgrade to your 18-55 lens.. and good for many purposes.

Recommended.

Dec 10, 2006

Bowman DigitalOfflineImage Upload: Off

Registered: Dec 4, 2006Location: AustraliaPosts: 0

Review Date: Dec 4, 2006

Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9

Pros:

Price, Construction & Optical Quality. Sharpness well above average, but is most suited to flash photography or bright day shooting with a lens hood.

Cons:

Slight Vignetting on a Canon EOS 5D. However this is very easily fixed in Post.

Similar to some of the other people that own this lens, I originally purchased this as a cheaper alternative to forking out for an L series zoom. Finding a good walkbout zoom for say a Canon 20D is very tough unless you buy an L-series. That said, this is about as best i've seen in this price range and it is much sharper at both ends of the zoom than the 28-135 IS USM lens that this replaced. I had two of those lenses and they were both soft, not only at the edges but zoomed out or zoomed in, the shots were unusuable. The IS on the 28-135 was never used, as the sharpness wasn't there in the first place.

If you are considering this lens for the same reasons as I did, you will not be disappointed. Unfortunately in Australia, this lens is not available. I bought this through Digital-REV on ebay and the lens arrived from hong-kong in 4 working days.

Dec 4, 2006

FatBoyAlOfflineImage Upload: On

Registered: Sep 4, 2005Location: United StatesPosts: 671

Review Date: Nov 14, 2006

Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $170.00
| Rating: 9

Pros:

Fast focus, very nice IQ, excellent value, good FL

Cons:

For the price? None!

I needed...wanted something with more on the long end than my 28-75/2.8 Tamron. This lens was available here for about $170. Even tho it was used (I was actually the third owner) and so inexpensive (and not an L) and no longer under warranty, I'd heard good things about it and so I jumped on it. At the time, my only experience with USM was my 85/1.8 and I loved that. This was no different.
Fast, fast on the money focus. Decent fast lens, in good light. Small, nice build. Like several other Canon "consumer-grade" lenses, this is a great find. The 58mm filter size is nice, too, for inexpensive filters from just about every manufacturer.
"My copy" (I believe that's a bit overused) had very nice IQ with a good build quality. Unless you're a pro, blowing up shots to poster size frequently, you could use this lens forever and never need to be pining away for an L.

I recommended this to my girlfriend who was buying a digital rebel, based on other reviews. I'm really picky about lenses, corner sharpness etc. On both the rebel and the 5d this lens is really quite impressive for the price! I was a little surprised to see corner to corner sharpness, and excellent detail using this on my 5d.

Nothing about the lens blows your socks off, but in the $200 range I don't think you can find a better all round performer. Really a pretty incredible value for your dollar.

Nov 13, 2006

jlandaueOfflineImage Upload: Off

Registered: Feb 4, 2005Location: United StatesPosts: 673

Review Date: Nov 8, 2006

Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $230.00
| Rating: 8

Pros:

Quite Sharp, build quality, fast focus, realible.

Cons:

None for that price, althought I wish this lens started at 17 mm

For that price, I would by this lens again. I have used them in weddings and in my trip to Europe in April 2006